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New York, 10:04 PM
Mon Dec 21
55 posts in the last 24 hours
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06/11/09
I mean, if it's good writers you're looking for, then aren't you more or less counting on them to have some ability to ignore/subvert/challenge "society's expectation"?
And in fact, if women are in some way more trammelled than men are by society's expectation, then you might expect them to be better than men at turning such expectations upside-down.
I'm not disagreeing with Susan Orlean's initial premise; in fact I'd guess about 90% of my nonfiction bookshelf is made up of the works of male writers. I've often wondered why that would be, but maybe my preferred topics are a factor: War, national security, travel, pop culture. But I still don't think there's any sense in which my tastes select for primarily male writers. A great book by a female writer on a preferred topic will get my attention just as easily: right now I'm itching to read Maria Ressa's Seeds of Terror. Susan Orlean is just verbalizing an idle conjecture, but I wonder if she's looking to explain something for which there is no single or small set of explanations.
06/10/09
I hate this kind of piece. And I'm really looking forward to Kristin Hersh's book - she not only wrote that but a gabillion albums and toured ceaselessly while having four kids.
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06/10/09
Also, the argument that men feel less bad about prioritizing work applies to ALL career fields.
If there is a lack of female lit nonfiction writers it is probably because they don't feel invited into the field so they either go into journalism and standard nonfiction or into literary fiction. Or maybe a combination. And also maybe no one is publishing them, as another thread points out.
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06/10/09
* I have actually heard a man say this.
06/10/09
I agree with this completely. I have always resented the idea that, in order to be successful at writing, I have to be locked in a room for 8 hours doing nothing else. (Come to think of it, it was a male creative writing teacher who said that this is what he did and obliquely suggested was the only way). I find time to write when I can although, unfortunately (or fortunately?), unemployment has opened up a lot of time for me to write. Last year when I was laid off, I started a novel, and this year when I was laid off again, I wrote third and fourth drafts of it. At the end of the day, though, you have to find what works for you, and a rigid schedule doesn't work for everyone.
I wonder why this seems to apply uniquely to literary non ficiton...?
06/10/09
Joan Didion
Cheryl Strayed
Joann Beard
Joy Williams
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[www.amazon.com]
(Damn good book. Highly recommended.)
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Let's not forget Erica Jong.
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Ann Finkbeiner
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And as far as creative work goes, I really can't imagine writing anything particularly interesting if I haven't interacted with people recently. How could I do justice to an attitude or persona I want to catch on paper if I'm not witnessing it?
06/10/09
I think she also skips over the fact that perhaps not as many female literary non-fiction writers are being published.
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